The Only Cover Letter Guide You Need to Succeed in Law Firm Applications
When I was in my penultimate year of law school, I applied for numerous legal internships to try to build a more all-rounded CV in order to prepare for future training contract applications.
I spent roughly 30 minutes to an hour on a cover letter. I made sure it highlighted every academic achievement, every extracurricular activity, and every ounce of potential I believed I had. I thought I did a pretty good job.
I didn't get invited for any interviews at all.
Instead, I received the following rejection email from one of those firms:
"I am in receipt of your letter of application ... and I was most impressed with your outstanding achievements. However, at the same time I have to say frankly I was most unimpressed with the letter itself.
First and foremost, your letter lacks sincerity... It suggests to the recipient that this is merely one of the many mass-produced letters. If you want to send out 10 or 30 letters, then prepare 10 or 30 letters individually, to show some respect to the people you are addressing.
The whole letter is only about yourself, your greatness, your successes and your potential. Do you have any knowledge of the intended recipients of your letter? Have you done any research on them, can you explain why you even bothered to send your letter to him or her? Why do you pick them, or their firm?"
Honestly, reading that email made me feel a bit embarrassed. You can also imagine how bad my cover letter must have been to prompt a busy legal professional to sit down and write that out.
But looking back now, a number of years later, I'm incredibly grateful for his brutal honesty. Because without that email, I would never have understood the fundamental flaw in how most aspiring lawyers approach cover letters.
His reply perfectly captured the biggest problem in the legal recruitment process today: a lack of specificity, sincerity and authenticity.
How to Write with Specificity, Sincerity and Authenticity?
So, how do you actually write a high-quality cover letter? How do you prove that you aren't just sending out mass-produced applications?
Before you write your next cover letter, please take a look at the following five key points:
1. The "3-Step Structure" of a Cover Letter and the Perfect Length
First of all, it should be noted that the exact format of a cover letter does vary slightly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. But as a general rule of thumb, your letter should try to cover the following three key aspects:
Why do you want to work in law or commercial law;
Why are you applying to this specific law firm; and
What skills do you possess and how do they make you a good fit for this role?
I will say in most top legal markets, if your cover letter addresses the second and third points very well, it will generally be considered a pretty decent letter. But specifically for training contract applications in the UK, point 1 is also important to effectively articulate your motivation to work as a solicitor in the very first paragraph. The truth is many BigLaw firms do care about your genuine motivation and why you choose to become a solicitor instead of many other career options. Therefore, building a good narrative on that will definitely help you stand out from the crowd.
In addition, many aspiring lawyers are confused as to whether they should keep their cover letter to one page or two pages.
The answer is actually — it depends.
For global firms like Slaughter & May and some other elite US firms in London, they specify, for example, that all the cover letters submitted to them should be a one-pager. In that case, writing a longer cover letter is definitely not recommended. And the rationale behind a shorter cover letter is simple: law firms don't want to waste their time reading long answers and they also want to identify candidates who can effectively sell themselves with the least amount of words possible — as this indicates how articulate you are as a future lawyer and how strong your written communication skill really is.
However, for firms that do not specify the exact length of a cover letter or even give you an extremely generous word count (e.g. 1,000 words), this is where the things become less clearer.
I've seen many successful TC candidates who sent out a 2-page cover letter, and quite frankly, many of my previous successful cover letters were longer than one page too. It's ultimately a personal choice, as some candidates may genuinely have so many diverse experiences they can draw from and, in that case, it kinda justifies a longer cover letter in order to show how well-rounded they really are as a candidate.
While a one-pager is not strictly necessary for all law firm applications, one thing that is universally true though is that — if you can articulate all of your key skills and reasons in a shorter cover letter, you shouldn't try to over-explain everything and make your letter unnecessarily long-winded.
At the end of the day, your cover letter should be detailed enough to effectively tell your story while still being very concise to showcase your strong written communication skills.
P.s. You can get a copy of my successful cover letter template and why commercial law answer for free here if you need a specific drafting example.
2. Starting Off Your "Why This Firm" Answer by Name-Dropping a Conversation
One of the best pieces of advice I ever received on law firm applications came from an old friend who was an ex-Linklaters corporate lawyer. He told me this:
"[T]here are many ways you can tailor your application to the firm. For example, you may name-drop a trainee/lawyer you meet at an event if he or she gives you some useful information beyond what you can find in its website or Legal 500, etc."
I used this exact strategy, sometimes at the very first beginning of my "why this firm" answer to immediately capture the attention of law firm recruiters.
I remember at an open day for the firm I eventually joined, I asked their associate about the specific training structure and initiatives the firm has. He told me about the yearly training schedule created by their know-how department and the unique secondment opportunities at the partner level.
As a result, I didn't just write "I am drawn to your firm's excellent training" like what many other applicants do in my cover letter. Instead, I started off my "why this firm" answer by mentioning that specific conversation and explained exactly what the associate told me about the firm:
"I was first pointed towards the graduate opportunities at this firm when I talked to the associate [insert name] at Open Day on 10th December, who spoke highly of the level of training provided by the firm including [insert 1-3 specific initiatives in a concise manner]..."
And that is sincerity.
It proves you met their people, you were listening attentively, and you cared enough to remember all the fine details about this firm.
3. The "Replace the Name" Test
When it comes to application drafting, many aspiring lawyers are already familiar with the "Replace the Name" Test: before you submit any cover letter or application answer, apply this simple test:
"if I replace the name of this firm with the name of their biggest competitor, does the letter still make sense?"
If you're talking about a firm's "top-tier M&A practice," "global network," or "commitment to diversity," the answer is likely yes. On paper, every international firm claims to have those things. If your reasons for applying to this specific firm could apply to 10 different other competing firms, your letter is too generic.
To pass the test, you need more specificity in your answers.
For example, you can mention a specific deal the firm advised on that genuinely interests you (and explain why it interests you based on your own background). You can also mention a specific conversation you had with a trainee or lawyer at a networking event. You can even reference a specific strategic move the firm has made in a region you care about. The key, though, is that you don't just mention these examples for the sake of mentioning them to impress — you need to always link that back to your interest or experience to make that detail inherently relevant to you.
At the end of the day, each firm knows their own achievements and initiatives very well, and they don't need you to remind them of those impressive stuff again. Instead, they want to know why those things matter to you specifically.
And that, again, is sincerity.
4. The "50/50 Percent" Rule: Connect The Firm's Strengths to Yours
As touched upon briefly in point 3 above, a well-written cover letter is the bridge between your background and the firm's specific strengths. It's not just about praising the firm, and it's not just about praising yourself.
It's about explaining why the two of you make sense together.
That is what I call the "50/50 Percent" Rule — generally speaking, your "why this firm" answer should discuss both your own personal experiences and the firm's strengths/details in a more balanced manner. In other words, if you use 250 words (out of 300) to talk about the firm, you're essentially copying and pasting the firm's achievements on their website. Alternatively, if you use most of the words to talk about yourself, you're simply listing out your own achievements and you're not directly answering the question of "why this law firm" at all.
That being said, the "50/50 Percent" Rule doesn't require you to use exactly 150 words (out of 300) to talk about yourself and then the other half to talk about the firm. It's simply a rule to remind you to make sure that your answer is more balanced and always tries to link the firm back to yourself. All I ask you to do, is to strike a good balance between these two things.
Say, if you're an international student from Asia, don't just say you want to work at this global firm because of their internationality. Instead, explain how your understanding of the Asian market aligns with the firm's recent expansion in Singapore, or their cross-border disputes practice focusing on a specific APAC region.
5. Highlighting the Correct Unique Selling Points (USPs) to the Firm
The last part of a cover letter often requires you to highlight two to three of your key transferrable skills that make you a good future trainee at this firm.
As a first step, you should identify the key skills required of that law firm based on what they say on their website or graduate recruitment brochure. Very often, firms will highlight the key skills they look for in the "What We're Looking For" or "FAQ" section. When writing your cover letter, you should ideally mention those specific skills to show that your skill answers are perfectly tailored to each particular law firm. While every law firm essentially looks for a similar set of key skills, the way they express or elaborate such skills can be quite different. And this is the fine distinction you should be able to spot.
Secondly, when it comes to drawing from your experiences to show the said skills, many aspiring lawyers are obsessed with mentioning only their legal work experience in training contract applications. But since you probably already mentioned that legal work experience in the "work experience" section, the "why commercial law" and "why this firm" answers, mentioning the same experience again in the skills question will indicate to firms that you rely too much on a few legal work experiences to sell yourself — which runs counter to the idea that you should always try to show an all-rounded profile to recruiters.
For example, if you worked in a non-legal role in retail, don't just list the job. Explain how managing angry customers taught you the exact de-escalation or communication skills you will need when dealing with stressed corporate clients during a closing.
Therefore, my final cover letter advice to aspiring lawyers here is that you should be more open to drawing from non-legal work experience or even extra-curricular activities to show your skills. Showing diversity of experiences is very important in training contract applications.
Conclusion
Writing an authentic cover letter takes significantly more time than blasting out 30 generic ones. It requires research, reflection, building your narrative and the ability to be specific yet concise.
But as I learned the hard way, 30 generic letters will yield 30 rejections. One authentic, highly tailored letter may change the entire trajectory of your career.
The next time you sit down to write a cover letter, read it back to yourself and ask: Am I just listing my achievements, or am I actually talking to this firm?
Authenticity cannot be faked. And in a pile of thousands of polished, generic applications, authenticity is the only thing that truly stands out.
Land Your Dream BigLaw Job Despite Your Background.
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are 2 ways I can help you secure your dream legal roles: 1. Take my Free Application Templates & Interview Master Sheet [Get it here]. 2. Book a Free 1:1 Call with Me [Have a chat today than to waste any more time].
Lastly — another call to apply for my BigLaw Academy Cohort to be part of my founding cohort. I had been teaching this framework to students one-on-one for years. These results are what that framework produces. Now I’m packaging it so more people can access it.
I also want to be 100% transparent with you all.
Because this is the founding cohort, it is intentionally small — just 8 to 12 students. You get direct access to Gordon throughout, a tighter peer group, and a fraction of the price of the 1:1 programme. The founding cohort rate will not be offered again. There is also only one spot left for the early bird price. Applications close 31 August and I accept students on a rolling basis.
I remember when I first introduced my 1:1 coaching programme, it costed only one-fourth of the price I'm offering right now. But those who trusted me signed up for the programme early and eventually got an offer with less than one-tenth of their future monthly trainee salary. Hesitation won't get you anywhere and those who start taking specific actions to change their life are the ones who eventually succeed in their goals.
So if you want to go from struggling applications to a confirmed offer at your dream firm in 8 weeks and if you want to be part of my founding cohort, apply for the BigLaw Academy Cohort here.
Hope you're having a good day!
Gordon Chung
